Page 26 of Iron Unicorn

“We leave for the staging area tomorrow morning at six.” Olivia scowled at me. “There will be no suits on our trip, sir!”

“I should be grateful you’re not making me wear shorts,” I muttered.

“I wouldn’t wish saddle burns in delicate locations on anyone. You can keep your new pairs of snug jeans. If you’re behaved, you can wear a button up shirt.”

“Except it seems they’re all made of denim.”

“I could make you wear a polo shirt instead.”

“Heaven forbid,” I muttered in my driest tone.

Eddie laughed at me. “Do you want a pair of khakis, Terry? I think I can get a pair past the tyrant ruling over this hotel room.”

“I’ll allow a pair of khakis, assuming they are properly fitted.”

Eddie lifted his hand to activate his microphone and said, “Please acquire Sickly New Yorker a pair of fitted khakis and any pants that do not classify as suit slacks. Her Highness has opted to show some mercy.”

I grinned at his commentary. “I appreciate the mercy, Olivia.”

“You better.”

Lowering his hand, Eddie said, “Someone is going to take care of your attire. I’ve been told you get to have some input on which horse you’re getting. I know your RPS horse has been in Montana, so the team isn’t sure what skill level you’re comfortable with.”

“I’m not quite the match for the Montana royals, but I can hold my own,” I replied. “I’m rusty, but I should be able to handle a challenging horse. However, I’d rather have one that’s steady for the trail ride. The last thing we need is that sort of unplanned excitement.”

“Sensible,” Olivia praised. “I made that same request, honestly. Pat foisted one of his Akhal-Teke mares on me.”

I envied her; the king’s Akhal-Tekes were worthy of royalty, and decades of careful breeding and grabbing up every fresh line he could had resulted in the royal family having an empire of the animals living at ranches all across Texas. “One of his blacks?”

“She’s a sooty buckskin, so she’s darker than the golden buckskins, but she’s light enough to be differentiated from a bay.” Olivia bounced where she stood, attempting to stare the kettles into submission so they boiled faster. “I get to meet her tomorrow morning, and I’m so excited.”

I bet. His Royal Majesty of Texas took his Akhal-Teke preservation project to extremes, and while Montana had a few of the horses, His Royal Majesty and his wife owned most of them. “That’s wonderful.”

“What color do you like, Terry?” Eddie shifted his weight where he sat, pulled his phone out of his pocket, and poked at the screen. “Actually, hold on. I’ll pull up the photo gallery of the available horses. You can point at the one you want that is marked with a star. As I’m cruel, I’m going to show you their baby pictures. You’re going to have to pick based on them being at their cutest.”

As I loved foals as much as the next sensible man, I abandoned the kitchen watch to join Eddie on the couch. “I can’t say I’ve ever picked a horse based on their baby picture before.”

“I’m a sucker for the foals, and if Dad thinks I might need a new horse, he subjects me to the cutest of the foal pictures. I have six horses I hadn’t anticipated getting because he pulled the foal trick on me. Five of them are basically feral freeloaders. They can’t be ridden, and Dad seems to think my place is his retirement home for his charity cases. He’s not wrong, but I wish he’d be a little less ruthless about the foal pictures.”

“Spinal issues?” I guessed.

“Yep, and while I love my horses, the spinal problems are the sort that don’t bar them from having a good life, they just bar them from being ridden. The cost of care is too expensive.” Tapping the screen, he held out his phone. “This is the first foal picture he nailed me with.”

I peered at the picture, which featured a dark filly doing her best to stand up and have her first drink of milk. I could understand how the young man had fallen for the picture.

She took being a cute wobbly foal to extremes. “That’s truly a ruthless photograph to use. Have you considered seeking out revenge on your dad?”

“Absolutely. If I happen to get to go to California, I am going to have a special delivery left in the palace. It’ll be my parting gift. I’ve been working on the project for a year now, and I’ve just been waiting for the perfect time.”

“What project?”

Eddie showed me a picture of a herd of miniature horses with their foals, and I estimated there were at least a hundred of them. “I’m going to set them all loose in the palace. They’re going to be his problem. All of them. Some I bought after they were bred, but they’re all good babies, and he will have to house them all. My miniature horses will rule Texas, and he’ll be forced to become champion in yet a new field. Showing miniature horses is serious business, Terry.”

Somehow, Eddie had become a younger version of the Texan king, one who’d inherited the monarch’s trickster ways. “Olivia? I want to help Eddie with his project.”

“Where is the herd located, Eddie?” Olivia asked, coming out of the kitchen to admire the picture. “I bet I could coerce one of the nicer agents into putting together a scenario overnight. When the herd is released, we’ll already be doing our scenarios, so he won’t be able to directly accuse us.”

“They’re at the rescue ranch about two and a half or so hours outside of Dallas.”

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